Heat exchangers for transferring heat from one fluid to another, such as from hot engine exhaust gas to relatively cool combustion air, are being continually developed in order to reduce the fuel consumption of the overall power plant with which they are operatively associated. Particularly active is the program to develop a gas turbine engine and heat exchanger package which can more economically and more effectively produce useful power. An example of such a package is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,759,323 issued Sept. 18, 1973 to H. J. Dawson et al and assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
While otherwise being operationally satisfactory, the heat exchanger and gas turbine engine package of the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 3,759,323 is somewhat bulky, which is undesirable for its use in an earthmoving vehicle or the like where space is at a premium. Particularly, the referenced package is too tall because the ducting used therein utilizes part of the package height for lengthwise distribution of the cool fluid to the side-by-side heat exchanger units.
When the length and width of the heat exchanger units and their associated ducting are limited so that these components do not extend outwardly to any significant degree beyond the gas turbine engine table-top area, certain performance characteristics are adversely limited. For example, minimizing the size of the triangular-shaped cross-flow zones with respect to the size of the rectangular counterflow area is important to effective performance. Hence, the package size must also be chosen with this in mind, and with an appreciation of the overall complexity and expense of the associated ducting, which ducting may also serve to support the heat exchanger units.